America did not drag its feet over sale – officials were not invited to the party

The German Government forgot to invite senior American officials to a crunch meeting on the fate of Opel and Vauxhall, US diplomatic cables have revealed.

With General Motors poised to enter bankruptcy protection in June 2009, German officials held a summit to discuss the three bids for GM’s European operations.

German media interpreted the failure of senior US officials to attend the summit on May 27 as an indication that Washington was dragging its feet and did not care about the threat to European jobs. However, cables obtained by Wikileaks tell a different story. “The Chancellery contacted the [US] embassy on the morning of May 26 to find out which US official was attending, but seemed confused.